ABSTRACT
The use of physical activity to promote health, and as an adjunct treatment for a range of physical and mental conditions, has been evident in the community and in healthcare since the early 1990s. This chapter focuses on lifestyle behaviours, and specifically exercise, started to develop following confirmation of the cause and effect relationship between cardiovascular disease and exercise, and specifically the work of Morris and colleagues in the 1960s. It provides a critical view of what evidence-based practice can be, within the context of physical activity interventions for health. The chapter has adopted a holistic concept of evidence and presented quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches to evidence generation in this area of applied interventions. Evidence for the efficacy of many of these programmes is varied. Numerous randomised controlled trials (RCTs) explored the efficacy of the exercise referral scheme model with mixed findings.
